The Story of a Cat Named Ezio
The Story of a Cat Named Ezio By Tawny Plot and Prophecy ~ "The forest dies, no one is near, but the cats will find, someone dear, to help them through this painful past, and maybe help the forest last..." -18 moon old Nightpaw is soon to become a warrior, that is, in a few days time. Her best friends, Soundpaw, Blizzardpaw. Robinpaw, Silentpaw and Windpaw are all becoming warriors with her. But when they are all sent together on their warrior mission to rightfully fill their soon to be warrior names, they run into a cat that they never thought could be possible. Many fights take place, many arguments tear them farther apart, and it's up to Nightpaw and their new friend to help them stay together long enough to make it back home. But what they soon discover is that while they were gone, something terrible has happened to the Clans, and they must learn to get along once again to bring life back to the territories. Prologue Teeth bared. Claws glistened. Moon high above. Blood pouring. Bones shattered. Shrieks of pain and helplessness fill the air. I know not where to go. Nor where to follow. I only use my senses to track those I love. Pawsteps pounding just behind. Quickening needed, breaks into sprint. New light shines. Death has come. Chapter 1 ''Sunlight flared, seeming a bit too brightly, into the apprentices den. ''Nightpaw's eyes flew opened as the hot waves began to melt her fur. Her blue eyes were shining as the sun reflected off of them and she mumbled, getting to her paws. The other apprentices around her were still asleep, and the dream she had had last night was still fresh on her mind. ''Where was I? When was there a battle? ''Nightpaw thought to herself, but shook her head and put the thought away. Then her heart flew and hit her chest. Today was the day they would receive their warrior names! She shot across the den to a fluffy white tom, whose tail covered his nose as he slept. "Blizzardpaw!" Nightpaw hissed. "Blizzardpaw, wake up!" Blizzardpaw let out a growl of frustration. "What?" "Today we get our warrior names!" Nightpaw exclaimed. Blizzardpaw's eyes opened and he got to a sitting position, wrapping his tail around his paws. "Well don't get your hopes up so much. We still have to make the journey to even receive them." He muttered. "Yeah I know." Nightpaw meowed. A yellow-tan tom with a striped tail and larger ears quickly jumped to his paws, his green eyes sharp with interest. "It's today?!" He exclaimed. "Yes, Soundpaw!" Nightpaw purred, trotting around the den. She was happy that another apprentice was as excited as she was. Then a red she-cat with a black muzzle, Robinpaw, opened her chocolate brown eyes and they flashed in recognition. She got to her paws. "Finally!" She exclaimed. Blizzardpaw rolled his ice blue eyes and muttered something under his breath. Nightpaw frowned and padded up to him. "Don't act so glum! We'll finalyl be made warriors!" "If we all make it back alive." He shot at her. The den fell silent and every apprentice stopped what they were doing. A silver she-cat with dark green eyes blink and looked at him in surprise. Her white striped tail swished. Soundpaw's sister, Silentpaw. "Why so down and only thinking of the negatives?" Silentpaw asked in her strong but quiet voice. "Yeah! Only rarely are cats found out dead!" A dark gray tom with amber eyes meowed, his white ears twitching in curiosity. "What about the few that have died, Windpaw?" Blizzardpaw snapepd the the tom. "Anything could happen. We need to take precaution." "Well duh, we know that." Nightpaw meowed. "We aren't ''that ''stupid." "Apprentices!" A voice called. Nightpaw's tail fluffed up in excitement as she recognized the voice. She shot out of the den with the others following. "Hello, Dewstripe!" Nightpaw meowed happily as she padded up to the cat who spoke. A warrior stood before them, a light minty colored she-cat with lime green eyes, with one white stripe running down her back. She smiled. "It's time for you to be met by the Clan and sent off on your journey." She meowed, and led the apprentices to the High Rock where the leader was calling the Clan together. When they had all gathered, the leader began. "Cats of DarkClan!" The leader, a black she-cat with purple and white flecks and spots along her pelt and vibrant purple eyes called. "It is time for our apprentices to be sent off on their warrior journey!" The Clan roared in excitement, and Nightpaw swished her tail to try and control herself from just bursting through the camp entrance. "Their journey shall be to travel from our home to another forest far from here, where we assume other cats live!" The leader meowed. "This place has not been found by us before, so they will have a clean slate on what to do." "Midnightstar!" A cat called from the crowd. Midnightstar turned her attention to the speaker. "When should we expect them to return?" The cat asked. "We have predicted they should be gone at least 5 moons, maybe more." Midnightstar explained. "But they can take as much time as they need to make it back." She looked down at the apprentices. "First you must head to the medicine cat's den and receive your traveling herbs. They won't last the entire trip, but it will be good to at least be able to do your first day out without worrying about food. Then you will say goodbye to your clanmates, and begin your journey." She flicked her tail in dismisal. Nightpaw was the first one to bolt across the camp, hearing Soundpaw and Silentpaw close behind. Robinpaw was taking to her right side and Windpaw took her left. Blizzardpaw of course was trailing behind. Nightpaw was still wondering why he wasn't acting as excited as they were. They thundered into the medicine cat's den. The medicine cat, Birchtail, look over and smiled. He swished his light brown tabby tail for them to come over. "Hello, apprentices." He meowed and pushed them each their traveling herbs. Robinpaw dove into it, and quickly reared back. "EWW!" She exclaimed, lashing out her tongue in disgust. "This doesn't taste right!" Windpaw took a large bite and looked as though he would puke. "They don't taste good at first time trying them." Birchtail laughed in amusement. "Don't worry, you'll get used to them." Nightpaw reluctantly ate hers, and when they all finished them, they said goodbye to Birchtail and ran back out, stopping at the entrance to camp. Midnightstar padded over and rested her tail tip on Nightpaw's shoulder. "Good luck." She meowed and smiled. Nightpaw pressed her muzzle into her mother's shoulder. "We'll be back." She meowed. Midnightstar nodded. "I take that as a promise." Nightpaw gave a yowl and led her fellow apprentices out of camp and into the forest, hearing their clanmate's calls of good luck yowling behind them. Chapter 2 ''The moon was shining overhead by the time the apprentices got to the pond that rested in the middle of all the territories, meaning any cat from any Clan was allowed to go there. '' "So what will our plan be?" Robinpaw asked, sitting down next to the pond. "Well we could go through TreeClan territory and come out by the very edge of SnowClan, where we could then take the direct route out of the Clans." Soundpaw meowed, drawing it out in the soft dirt. Nightpaw smiled. She was impressed. "How did you know to do all that?" "Well I just had a feeling this was the easiest way to go." Soundpaw meowed, swishing his tail in embarassment. Silentpaw padded up to her brother and rested her tail tip on his shoulder. "Good work, brother." She meowed. Blizzardpaw sighed. "We can't do anything right now." He meowed. "If we were in other Clan territory this late at night they would surely take us in, whether we were on our warrior mission or not." Nightpaw nodded. "Right, so we just have to stay near the TreeClan border tonight so we can start right away tomorrow." "But wouldn't that cause suspicion to TreeClan?" Windpaw asked. "Since we would literatly be sleeping on the border?" "I don't know." Nightpaw meowed. "But we are about to find out." They padded past the pond and back into DarkClan territory, where they then tracked the scents to the TreeClan border and spotted a few bushes right before it. "There! We can sleep here." Nightpaw meowed. Robinpaw dove for the bushes and giggled. "Yeah! There is perfect room for three cats in each bush!" "Great," Blizzardpaw grumbled. "We're going to have to huddle next to each other." "Why don't you guys get ready for bed?" Nightpaw meowed. "I need to talk to Blizzardpaw." Soundpaw nodded. "Alright." He looked to the others. "Come on! Let's go get some bedding!" They bolted off into the undergrowth. Nightpaw whipped to face Blizzardpaw. "What is going on with you?" "I don't know what you're talking about." Blizzardpaw meowed darkly. "Of course you know what I'm talking about!" Nightpaw hissed. "You have been grumpy and moody the first day we are on our mission and no having any fun with it!" "That's because I'm actually taking it seriously, not acting as though we just have to go somewhere and come back without having to worry about anything." Blizzardpaw snapped, his ice blue eyes glowing in annoyance in the darkness. "We haven't even gotten away from the DarkClan territory!" Nightpaw snarled. "I would maybe understand when you felt so uptight and worried when we broke away from all of the Clan territories." "Excuse me?" A quiet voice meowed behind them. They looked to see Silentpaw watching them. She padded up to Nightpaw. "I can talk sense into him." Silentpaw meowed. "Are you sure you want to?" Nightpaw asked, afraid Blizzardpaw would snap on her and break Silentpaw's fragile heart. Silentpaw nodded and smiled. "Yes, I can handle it." Nightpaw hesitated before nodding, and shot away after the others. Silentpaw looked at Blizzardpaw. "There is no need to act so worried." "Of course there is." Blizzardpaw growled, beginning to pace, not looking at her. "We have never had to send apprentices through other Clan borders to do their mission before. TreeClan will probably take it the wrong way and think DarkClan is trying to start a war." "But we don't know that." Silentpaw meowed. "Maybe we could sneak past them before they realize we were there." Blizzardpaw sighed and stopped, sitting down. His swished his tail in anger. "I don't know why I always have to worry so much..." He spat. Silentpaw padded over and sat next to him. "It's okay, everyone gets a little antsy sometimes." She meowed reassuringly. "Yeah, but I'm like this all the time and I hate it." Blizzardpaw growled. "You just have to learn to control it." Silentpaw meowed. "You just need a little help, that's all." Blizzardpaw sighed again and looked at her. "Thanks." He meowed. Silentpaw gave her small smile. "You're welcome. Now, do you promise to try and have more fun during the journey?" Blizzardpaw nodded. "I promise." He meowed. Just then the other apprentices arrived with moss and were placing them inside of the bushes on the ground. "What are you guys just sitting there for?" Robinpaw called through the moss in her jaws. "We need some help!" Blizzardpaw rushed over and helped make a larger opening in the bush, letting Robinpaw through the put the moss down. Nightpaw padded over to Silentpaw after she had placed her own moss. "How did it go?" "He realized what he must do now." Silentpaw meowed and smiled. Nightpaw sighed in relief. "Thank you." She meowed. "No problem." Silentpaw mewed and got to her paws, heading over to Soundpaw to help him form the moss into nests. Nightpaw padded over to Blizzardpaw. "You feel better now?" "I guess." Blizzardpaw meowed. Nightpaw smiled and placed her tail tip on his shoulder. "Good, we don't want a Mister Grumpy Pants holding us down the entire trip!" She laughed and padded into one of the bushes and layed down in a nest. Blizzardpaw rolled his eyes in amusement and padded to the other bush, curling up in a nest of his own and quickly falling asleep... Chapter 3 ''Nightpaw woke up the next morning by a paw prodding her shoulder. ''She growled and glared up to see Soundpaw above her, trying to wake her up. "Thank goodness you're awake." He whispered. "What do you want?" Nightpaww hissed. She peered outside to see the sun just beginning to rise over the horizon. "It's not even dawn!" "Shh!" Soundpaw whispered. "I wanted to wake you up because I heard something." "Well of course, you hear everything." Nightpaw sighed and got to her feet. There was no use trying to go back to bed. "No, this time was different." Soundpaw meowed. "I think something is wrong." "Ugh, FINE!" Nightpaw snapped and got to her paws. She wasn't in the mood today for Soundpaw's silly hearing abilities. Soundpaw led them to the spot where he had heard the noise. "Right here." Nightpaw peered underneath the large bramble bush. "Soundpaw I don't see any-" She immediately stopped speaking as a pair of brown eyes glowed in the darkness. "What is it?" Soundpaw whispered. Nightpaw's fur fluffed up as a yowl split the air and five cats dove out of the bush, one pinning her down, another pinning down Soundpaw, and the other three stood where they were. "What are you doing on TreeClan territory?" The cat above Nightpaw spat. "We aren't on-" Nightpaw sniffed the air, then looked back and realized Soundpaw had brought them over the border and she had never noticed. "Soundpaw!" Nightpaw hissed to the other apprentice, who folded back his ears. She looked back at the cat. "We're sorry to bother you. Soundpaw just heard a noise and thought something was wrong, and he took us over the border without us realizing it." Nightpaw explained. "Honest truth." TO BE CONTINUED...